The present invention relates to apparatus for treating waste to facilitate its disposition. The invention is particularly useful for treating medical waste of all types, and is therefore described below with respect to this application.
Waste in general, and medical waste in particular, present a number of disposal problems. Medical waste, as generated in medical, veterinary, dental and laboratory facilities, includes a wide variety of forms, such as bandages, gloves, infusion bags, hypodermic needles, syringes, products of dialysis, human and animal waste. Such waste must be disposed in a safe, expeditious and hazard-free manner. In large medical facilities, the medical waste is generally collected at a central location and disposed by incineration, grinding, and/or heating. Such processes are not only costly, but may also be environment-unfriendly in the odors generated or in the degradation of the environment.
Because of the different types of medical waste to be disposed, a number of devices have been developed which include shredders for shredding the medical waste in order to reduce the overall volume and to facilitate sterilization. Examples of apparatus of this type are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,861 by Charles Miller, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,654 by Beni Mosenson, one of the inventors in the present application. While the invention described in the latter patent has been incorporated in commercial apparatus, such an apparatus is relatively large and costly, and therefore has been found to be more suitable for relatively large medical facilities, such as large-size and medium-size hospitals, than for relatively small facilities, such as medical, dental, veterinary and dialysis clinics.
An object of the present invention is to provide a relatively simple and compact apparatus for disposing of waste in general, and medical waste in particular, in a safe, expeditious and hazard-free manner. Another object of the invention is to provide such an apparatus particularly suitable for use by relatively small facilities such as medical, dental, dialysis and veterinary clinics.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for treating waste to facilitate its disposition, comprising: a housing having an inlet for introducing the waste to be treated; a treatment vessel within the housing and having an open top for receiving and removing the waste, the treatment vessel being pivotal to a waste-loading position with its open top aligned with the housing inlet for receiving waste introduced therethrough, and to a waste-treating position for treating the waste within the treatment vessel; and a shredder within the treatment vessel for shredding waste therein before being removed from the treatment vessel.
The term shredder, as used herein, is intended to include any device which shreds, grinds, or otherwise reduces the waste materials to small particles or pieces for disposal.
According to further features in the described preferred embodiments, the housing also has an outlet, separate from the inlet, for removing the waste after its treatment; and the treatment vessel is also pivotal to a waste-removing position with its open top aligned with the housing outlet for removing therethrough the waste after treatment in the treatment vessel.
According to further features in the described preferred embodiments, the shredder is driven by a drive within the housing and coupled to the shredder within the treatment vessel by a shaft passing through a side wall of the treatment vessel; the treatment vessel is pivotally mounted about the shaft.
According to further features in the described preferred embodiment, the apparatus further comprises: a compactor head aligned with the open end of the treatment vessel when the treatment vessel is in the waste-treating position so as to be reciprocatable within the treatment vessel to compact the waste therein; and a control system permitting operation of the compactor head only when the treatment vessel is in its waste-treating position. A water supply line feeds water into the treatment vessel to be mixed with the waste therein during the operation of the compactor head and shredder.
When the apparatus is to be used for disposing medical waste, the apparatus would further comprise a feed line for feeding a disinfectant into the treatment vessel to be mixed with the waste and the water during the operation of the compactor head. In one described preferred embodiment, the disinfectant is a liquid disinfectant fed into the treatment vessel via the compactor head so as to be mixed with the waste and the water within the treatment vessel during the operation of the compactor head. In another described preferred embodiment, the disinfectant is ozone which is fed directly into the treatment vessel during the operation of the compactor head.
According to further features in the described preferred embodiments, the housing outlet is occupied by a waste-removal drawer normally in an inner position aligned with the open end of the treatment vessel when the treatment vessel is in its waste-removing position to receive the waste therefrom, but is movable outwardly to enable removal of the waste from the drawer. Preferably, the waste-removal drawer has a bottom which is slanted downwardly from its outer side toward its inner side to permit liquid in the treated waste to separate from the solids and to drain to the inner side of the drawer. The drawer includes an outlet opening at its inner side to drain the liquid therefrom.
As will be described more particularly below, such apparatus provides a number of important advantages particularly making it suitable for use in small facilities for disposing medical waste. Since the complete treatment, from the introduction of the raw medical waste to its final disinfected and disposable form, is performed in a single treatment vessel, the handling of the medical waste is greatly simplified, and the chances of infecting handlers or equipment are greatly reduced. Since the treatment vessel in which the waste is treated is pivotally mounted to its various positions for loading, treating and removing the waste, the invention may be implemented in compact apparatus of relatively small size suitable for small offices and clinics. In addition, the provision of the compactor head, the water supply line, and the disinfectant feed line, enable the medical waste to be converted to a reduced-volume and disinfected form for disposable in a safe, expeditious and hazard-free manner.
Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description below.